Would you rather get a raise or be allowed to work from home?
In Keepmeposted’s recent survey on salary raises, we asked this question and discovered that the overwhelming majority (73%) of workers in Malta aged 18-75 would choose a pay raise over the opportunity to work from home.
The result seems to contradict other surveys in the Western world, where many would take a pay cut if they had the opportunity to work full-time from home. Another poll by US firm McKinsey & Company shared the same result – Americans love working from home and they want more of it. So much so that, according to a Stamford economist, Nicholas Bloom, working from home is being equated to a 10% pay raise.
So why are the results so different in Malta?
It could be that salary growth in Malta is not keeping up with high cost-of-living increases, so perhaps people prefer higher salaries than the perk of working from home.
Or perhaps those who want to work from home are already finding the opportunity to do so as employers become more accustomed to this reality.
Plus, there are many jobs that do not permit working from home, in which case a raise is definitely a better prospect for people. That includes people in the medical field, catering, architects, construction site workers, retail workers and many others. In that case, this sector of people would naturally prefer the pay raise, given the option.
Interestingly, the younger cohort of respondents within the ages of 18-30 showed a slightly higher percentage of interest in working from home, and this could be indicative of the type of jobs the younger generation may be more inclined to have – such as software or digital marketing. Jobs which can be easily done at home.
There is also a 6.5 percentage point difference between male and female respondents. Female respondents preferred the pay raise slightly more (76.3%) than male respondents (69.8%). There was little to no difference across career levels.
What do you make of this? If you had to choose, would you prefer a raise over working from home?
